Shrewd Simon knows where he’s not loved
towards the centre politically.
Comrade Stevenson would not comment on what he called the “Labour party's internal grieving” over the issue. But given that the Communist Party is not challenging in other mayoral elections across the UK, one wonders if they would have bothered if Labour had selected a candidate from the Corbyn wing.
OVER to the local council by-election in Hall Green where a second candidate has been exposed as sharing offensive or anti-Semitic material on social media.
Labour's first choice candidate had to withdraw last month but luckily for them a replacement was found and put through in time.
The Conservatives were less fortunate as details of offensive tweets by candidate Obaid Khan emerged only after the April 4 deadline for candidates.
Therefore, despite being asked to resign from the party and having all support withdrawn, his name and former party affiliation remain on the ballot paper.
What is striking is how quickly the Conservatives handled this – from the offensive posts being reported it was barely a few hours before it had been investigated by the powers that be and action taken. The issue is now dead (unless Mr Khan by a bizarre and unlikely twist of fate gets elected).
Labour could learn a thing or two given the months and months it has taken to deal with the Ken Livingstone issue and continued appearance under the media spotlight.
FORMER Birmingham City Council strategic director of place Sharon Lea has appeared on the annual ‘town hall rich' list after being paid £414,000 in the year of her retirement – 2015/16.
Of course the situation is complex – her salary was a well-publicised £150,000 per year and she only worked for a third of that year – taking £50,000.
The list is compiled and published by campaign group the Taxpayers Alliance who appear keen on rolling back the state.
The remainder was a pension contribution of £363,000 – no doubt topping a final salary fund which has been built up over her 40 years service and was still in deficit on her retirement.
With a high-profile job, most recently on the front-line of rolling out the controversial wheelie bins and introducing garden waste charges, Ms Lea came in for much criticism during her final years with the council.
But this appears to be an indictment not of her but of a pension system, often described by critics as gold-plated, which with rare exceptions now exists only in the public sector.
It used to be that the nice pension was compensation for what are often very testing but underpaid jobs.
Birmingham City Council has the turnover of a major national, or even international corporation, but its top staff earn a fraction of the cost of those inhabiting FTSE 100 boardrooms – and children and old people suffer when the council gets things wrong.
Perhaps the pension scheme should be rolled back – but equally shouldn't we be paying senior council staff more, not less – especially if we want well run efficient services?
Mr Simon probably does not mind people in parts of Solihull are offended – they are unlikely to vote Labour anyway